Mash it Up!

Native Instruments’ Traktor Kontrol S4 has taken the DJing world by storm. Just like when the first Pioneer CDJs rocked up into the DJ booths of clubland, this is part of the next generation of DJing and truly mashes up digital delivery with deck skills.

The Traktor Kontrol S4 allows DJs to command the use of four decks, sample banks, auto loops, hot cues, FX et al. From this next generation of DJs and technological innovations we are seeing more and more ingenious ways of putting a mix together. One of DJmag’s favourite genres, which seems to be coming on in leaps and bounds and is benefiting from new DJing technology, is the mash-up. Combining skills from all DJ disciplines, there have been some very tasty mixes and routines devised. Check out DJs like Ean Golden, Girl Talk, A-Trak and Jaguar Skills — making waves with their mash-up sets, combining old school hip-hop with bang up-to-date electro, house, and all sorts of dance music genres, smashing up dancefloors worldwide. So in the spirit of this emerging party fest, DJmag and Native Instruments have come together to aid all budding mash-up DJs to get a piece of the action with the all-new Traktor S4 controller. And instead of the bog standard, send your details to us and we’ll pick a winner type affair, we want you — the DJs — to get all creative and send in your very own mash-up mixes.

This is the first of many future DJmag competitions, where DJs from all over the globe can put together a six-minute mix and send it to us where it will be judged, and the winner will be the lucky soul who gets their mitts on the Traktor Kontrol S4.

Mixes should consist of at least four genres, need to be six minutes long and definitely mixed! We don’t mind what you do it on, whether solely on turntables or using the DVS technology that is widely available for DJs — all we ask is that the mixes rock the discotheque! We’ll be looking at creative mixing — as well as jaw-dropping out-of-this-world DJ trickery — before we decide who will walk away with the top prize and the accolade of being DJmag’s first Mixed UP DJ champion.

So to get your hands on the Traktor Kontrol S4, get mixing! Entry for mixes is open until 1st March 2011 and the winner will be announced in a forthcoming issue of the magazine.

Send your mixes to our DJmag dropbox to enter, good luck!

soundcloud.com/mixdoctor/dropbox

Check the S4 in action at the hands of Ean Golden: